Distribution, Status and Conservation of the Bengal Florican Houbaropsis Bengalensis in Cambodia
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Bird Conservation International (2009) 19:1–14. ª BirdLife International 2009 doi:10.1017/S095927090800765X Printed in the United Kingdom Distribution, status and conservation of the Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis in Cambodia THOMAS N. E. GRAY, NIGEL J. COLLAR, PETER J. A. DAVIDSON, PAUL M. DOLMAN, TOM D. EVANS, HARRY N. FOX, HONG CHAMNAN, RO BOREY, SENG KIM HOUT and ROBERT N. VAN ZALINGE Summary The Bengal Florican is a ‘Critically Endangered’ bustard (Otididae) restricted to India, Nepal and southern Indochina. Fewer than 500 birds are estimated to remain in the Indian subcontinent, whilst the Indochinese breeding population is primarily restricted to grasslands surrounding the Tonle Sap lake, Cambodia. We conducted the first comprehensive breeding season survey of 2 Bengal Florican within the Tonle Sap region (19,500 km ). During 2005/06 and 2006/07 we systematically sampled 1-km squares for territorial males. Bengal Florican were detected within 2 90 1-km squares at a mean density of 0.34 males kmÀ which, accounting for unequal survey 2 effort across grassland blocks, provides a mean estimate of 0.2 males kmÀ . Based on 2005 habitat extent, the estimated Tonle Sap population is 416 adult males (333–502 6 95% CI), more than half of them in Kompong Thom province. Tonle Sap grasslands are rapidly being lost due to intensification of rice cultivation and, based on satellite images, we document declines of 28% grassland cover within 10 grassland blocks between January 2005 and March 2007. Based on mean 2005 population densities the remaining grassland may support as few as 294 adult male 2 florican, a decline of 30% since 2005. In response to these habitat declines almost 350 km of grassland have been designated as protected areas, set aside for biodiversity and local livelihoods. Conservation activities in these areas include participatory land-use zoning, patrols reporting new developments to government officials, awareness-raising and incentive-led nest protection schemes. Introduction Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis is a globally threatened bustard restricted to lowland dry or seasonally inundated alluvial grasslands and occurring in two disjunct populations; one in northern India and Nepal and the second in southern Indochina (BirdLife International 2001). The species is polygynous, with an apparent exploded lek breeding biology, and, at least within Indochina, is largely migratory, with most populations leaving breeding grasslands at the onset of the rainy season. Although the wet-season distribution is imprecisely known, birds have been recorded from grassland patches within dry dipterocarp forest, 30–60 km from known breeding grasslands. Bengal Florican has recently been uplisted to ‘Critically Endangered’ on the basis of rapid population decline inferred from declines in grassland extent within Cambodia (Gray 2008). The Indochinese subspecies H. b. blandini was first described by the French naturalist Jean Delacour from a female specimen collected from Svay Rieng province, Cambodia in June 1928 (Delacour 1929). Subsequent pre-1960 records were concentrated around the lower Mekong floodplain, in both Cambodia and adjacent Vietnam, with three reports from areas north of the T. N. E. Gray et al. 2 Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia (Eames 1995, Thomas and Poole 2003, Davidson 2004). The deteriorating security situation prevented further fieldwork in Cambodia until the late 1990s and, despite the discovery in 1990 of small numbers in Dong Thap province, Vietnam, the Indochinese Bengal Florican population was believed to be tiny. Therefore global population estimates of , 400 in the early 1980s, comprising 200–300 birds in India and , 100 in Nepal, were still considered appropriate a decade later (Inskipp and Collar 1984, Collar et al. 1994). However in April 1999 Bengal Floricans were observed from grassland surrounding a Khmer Rouge era dam at Ang Trapeang Thmor, Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodia (Goes and Sam Veasna 1999). By 2002, subsequent fieldwork documenting the country’s Important Bird Areas produced records from an additional four locations within seasonally inundated grass- land surrounding the Tonle Sap lake, one location in north-west Cambodia in the margins of the Tonle Sap floodplain, and one site in the Mekong delta (Seng Kim Hout et al. 2003, Davidson 2004). Since 2002 biological research has been undertaken at three focal grassland sites supporting breeding floricans within the Tonle Sap floodplain (sites 8: Stoung-Chikreng, 11: Veal Srangai and 12: Kruos Kraom; Figure 1; Appendix 1), resulting in a population estimate of 106–270 birds across these three sites (Davidson 2004). This estimate exceeded numbers from the largest single population in the Indian subcontinent, at Manas National Park, Assam (Choudhury 2000), Figure 1. Grassland blocks (2005) within the Tonle Sap region and locations of Bengal Florican detected during territory surveys in 2006 and 2007. Grassland blocks identified by numbers: 1: Mongkol Borei; 2: Preah Net Preah; 3: Puok-Muok Paen; 4: Puok Lvea; 5: Kandeak; 6: Prasat Bakong; 7: Stoung Chikreng South; 8: Stoung Chikreng; 9: San Kor; 10: Chamnar Kraom; 11: Veal Srangai; 12: Kruos Kraom; 13: Kouk Preah Beung Trea; 14: Chong Doung; 15: Baray; 16: Cheung Prey; 17: Krakor; 18: Kandieng; 19: Bakan; 20: Koas Kroala; 21: Moung Russei; 22: Sangkae Kompong Pring; 23: Sangkae Preak Luong; 24: Sangkae Roka; 25: Aek Phnum; 26: Aek Phnum-Preak; 27: Thmor Kol; 28: Bavel. Status of Bengal Floricans in Cambodia 3 emphasising the great significance of the Cambodian population for the global conservation of the Bengal Florican. Cambodia-wide land-use classifications suggested considerable additional grassland habitat within, and at the margins of, the Tonle Sap floodplain, and further surveys and assessments of the species’s status within Cambodia were considered a conservation priority (BirdLife International 2001, Davidson 2004). This paper presents the results of the first com- prehensive surveys of Bengal Florican from grassland patches within and surrounding the Tonle Sap floodplain, and reviews the species’s distribution and status in Cambodia. Current con- servation activities being undertaken on the species are also outlined. Methods Study area Tonle Sap, located in the centre of the low-lying Cambodian central plain (13°N, 104°E) is the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia. In the dry season (December–June) it covers some 2 2,500 km , but in the wet season (July–November) it expands, following a reversal in the flow of 2 the Tonle Bassac river, to between 12,500 and 15,000 km (Campbell et al. 2006). Our study area 2 (henceforth Tonle Sap region) comprised just over 19,500 km (10.8 % of Cambodia’s land area) of which approximately 56% is within the Tonle Sap floodplain (Figure 1) The most recent Cambodia-wide land-use classification (JICA 2000), dating from 1996/97, indicates this region holds the majority of the remaining grassland in Cambodia (. 60% by area of all grassland 2 patches . 10 km ). Within the Tonle Sap region, dominant vegetation types in 1996/7 were wet-season rice agriculture (33% of area excluding permanent water in the Tonle Sap) and forest and scrublands (33%), interspersed with grassland (21%) and small permanent wetlands (15%) (JICA 2000). Soils are primarily gleysols and acrisols with small areas of plinthosols, fluvisols and luvisols (MRC 2006). Survey methodology The Bengal Florican is a grassland specialist and, as a result of its exploded-lek breeding system, requires relatively large contiguous grassland patches (Gray 2008). Given that breeding-season 2 home ranges of adult male Bengal Floricans (n 5 8) are between 1.6 and 2.5 km (Gray et al. 2 unpublished manuscript), leks of . 4 males are likely to require in excess of 10 km of grassland. Therefore, in order to produce precautionary but statistically robust and conservative population 2 estimates, we restricted our surveys to potentially suitable habitat, defined as within large (. 10 km ) grassland blocks. These were identified, prior to field surveys, from the latest available land- cover classifications for the study region, dating from January 2005 (derived from manual in- terpretation of colour aerial photographs) for grassland blocks within the boundaries of the Tonle Sap floodplain (Gray 2008) and from 1996 for blocks outside the floodplain (JICA 2000). In addition to the three known focal sites, this process identified 25 grassland blocks within the 2 2 Tonle Sap region: 22 (total area 1,166 km ; area x 53 km ) inside the Tonle Sap floodplain and 2 2 3 (total area 768 km ; x area 256 km ) outside the floodplain (Figure 1). Logistics and security reasons related to unexploded ordinance and bandit activity ruled out field visits to nine of these 2 2 grassland blocks (total area 205 km ; x area 23 km ), so that surveys were restricted to the 16 2 2 remaining blocks (total area 1,729 km ; x area 108 km ). A random subset of 169 1-km squares (from the pool of 1,729 possible 1-km squares) within these grassland blocks was selected for 2 survey. A 1-km sampling unit was chosen to be relevant to the species’s exploded-lek breeding biology and reflected the approximate minimum distance between adjacent territories within an exploded lek (Gray et al. 2007). All selected 1-km squares were surveyed during the late dry season (March–June) of 2005/6 and 2006/7, the time of year when water levels are at their lowest and Bengal Floricans breed T. N. E. Gray et al. 4 (Gray et al. 2007). All squares were surveyed on foot for one hour by teams consisting of two experienced observers using binoculars. During the breeding season, male floricans are highly conspicuous, with displays comprising an undulating flight sequence and an elaborate ruffling of head, neck and breast feathers whilst on the ground (Davidson 2004). Therefore during this period male Bengal Florican can be detected reliably.